ERICACE. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 143 
RHODODENDRON. 
FLoweErs perfect ; calyx 5-parted or toothed, the divisions imbricated in estiva- 
tion, often much reduced or obsolete ; corolla gamopetalous, usually 5-lobed, the lobes 
imbricated in estivation; stamens usually 8 to 10; ovary superior, 5 to 20-celled ; 
ovules numerous in each cell. Fruit a woody 5 to 20-celled septicidal many-seeded 
capsule. Leaves alternate, entire, coriaceous or membranaceous, persistent or decidu- 
ous, destitute of stipules. 
Rhododendron, Maximowicz, Mém. Acad. Sci. St. Péters- 
bourg, sér. 7, xvi. 13 (Rhododendree Asie Orientalis) 
(1870).— Bentham & Hooker, Gen. ii. 599.— Baillon, 
Hist. Pl. xi. 171. 
Azalea, Linnzus, Gen. 53 (1737). — A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 
158. — Endlicher, Gen. 758. — Meisner, Gen. 246. 
Rhododendron, Linnezus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 1023 (1759) ; 
Gen. ed. 6, 218. — A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 158. — End- 
licher, Gen. 759. — Meisner, Gen. 246. 
Rhododendron, D. Don, Edinburgh New Phil. Jour. vi. 49 
(1822). 
Vireya, Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 854 (not Rafinesque) 
(1826). — Don, Gen. Syst, iii. 848. 
Anthodendron, Reichenbach, Moessler Handb. Gewiichsk. 
ed. 2, i. 308 (1827). — Meisner, Gen. 246. 
Rhododendron, Don, Gen. Syst. iii. 843 (1834). 
Osmothamnus, De Candolle, Prodr. vii. 715 (1839). — 
Endlicher, Gen. Suppl. i. 1412. 
Rhodora, Linnzus, Gren. ed. 6, 218 (1764). — A. L. de Jus- 
sieu, Gen. 159. — Meisner, Gen. 246. 
Trees or shrubs, sometimes epiphytal, glabrous, pubescent, tomentose, or lepidote,’ with scaly 
bark, hard close-grained wood, terete branchlets, scaly leaf-buds, and fibrous roots. Leaves alternate, 
usually clustered at the ends of the branches, entire, coriaceous or membranaceous, persistent or 
deciduous. Flowers in terminal few or many-flowered umbellate corymbs or fascicles from separate 
strobilaceous inflorescence-buds with usually numerous caducous bracts, or rarely axillary or solitary 
from leafy or separate buds, or terminal and solitary on leafy shoots of the year. Calyx five-parted or 
toothed, disk-shaped, cupular or obsolete, coriaceous or foliaceous, persistent. Corolla usually funnel- 
shaped or campanulate, rarely tubular, salver-formed or subrotate, the limb more or less oblique, five or 
rarely six to ten-lobed or parted, occasionally twolipped, deciduous. Stamens hypogynous, usually 
eight to ten, rarely five, or twelve to eighteen, more or less unequal, often declinate, ultimately spread- 
ing; filaments usually subulate-filiform or rarely short and thick, usually pilose or bearded at the base ; 
anthers attached on the back, stout or elongated, rarely incurved and connivent, entire, two-celled, each 
cell opening by a terminal pore. Disk usually thick and fleshy, crenately lobed. Ovary superior, five 
to twenty-celled; style slender, short or elongated, declinate or incurved, crowned with a capitate five 
to twenty-lobed stigma; ovules numerous in each cell, attached in many series to an axile two-lipped 
placenta projected from the inner angle of the cell, anatropous; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. 
Capsule short or elongated, splitting septicidally from the apex into five to twenty valves free from the 
placentiferous axis, many-seeded. Seeds scobiform ; testa loose, reticulate, produced beyond the nucleus 
at both ends into short often laciniate appendages. Embryo minute, cylindrical, axile in fleshy 
albumen ; cotyledons oblong, shorter than the radicle turned towards the hilum.’ 
1 The character of the covering of the leaves of Rhododendron 
has been found useful in grouping the species and for distinguish- 
ing them. (See Vesque, Ann. Sci. Nat. sér. 7, i. 238.) 
2 By Maximowiez (Mém. Acad. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, sér. 7, xvi. 
14) (Rhododendree Asie Orientalis) Rhododendron is divided into 
the following sections : — 
OsmotHamnus. Flowers in many-flowered terminal clusters 
from separate subglobose leafless buds of few caducous bracts on 
shoots of the previous year; corolla campanulate or salver-form, the 
tube erect or slightly curved, villous in the throat ; stamens 5 to 7, 
included; ovary 4 to 5-celled. Dwarf graveolent alpine shrubs with 
persistent leaves tomentose on the lower surface. Central Europe, 
central Asia, Siberia, and northern China. 
EvURHODODENDRON. Flowers in many-flowered terminal clusters 
